The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and output connections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in a vehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access and connect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errors in the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any such errors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs. Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if each connection must be individually checked and rechecked.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle tracking unit which provides vehicle position information based upon changes in vehicle direction.
This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking unit which may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller. The controller may cooperate with the vehicle position determining device to determine vehicle position information based upon the vehicle changing a direction of travel by greater than a threshold. Moreover, the controller may also store the vehicle position information and/or cooperate with the wireless communications device to send the vehicle position information to a monitoring station based upon each occurrence of the vehicle changing the direction of travel by greater than the threshold.
More particularly, the controller may include a memory for storing the vehicle position information therein, and the controller may download the vehicle position information from the memory to the monitoring station based upon at least one of a predetermined schedule, a predetermined event, and the memory reaching a predetermined capacity. Further, the controller may advantageously not send the vehicle position information to the monitoring station unless the vehicle changes the direction of travel by greater than the threshold. As a result, wireless communications charges (e.g., cellular phone charges) may be held to a minimum since the direction of travel of the vehicle may always be known without the need for constant vehicle position updates.
By way of example, the threshold may be greater than about 45 degrees, although other thresholds may also be used. Further, the vehicle position determining device may be a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, and the wireless communications device may be a cellular telephone communications device, for example. Also, the cellular telephone communications device may communicate over a cellular control channel.
In addition, the controller may determine the vehicle position information based upon the vehicle changing the direction of travel by greater than the threshold and then continuing in the changed direction for greater than a predetermined period, e.g., greater than about five seconds. Similarly, the controller may also determine the vehicle position information based upon the vehicle changing the direction of travel by greater than the threshold and then continuing in the changed direction at greater than a predetermined speed, e.g., five miles per hour (MPH). As a result, unwanted downloading of vehicle position information may advantageously be avoided when a vehicle makes only a temporary change in direction, such as to stop briefly at a gas station or go around something in the road, for example. Again, this may result in further wireless communications charge savings.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the controller may also determine a value of deviation, such as an angular speed of the vehicle in degrees per second, for example. As such, the controller may advantageously determine the vehicle position information based upon the value of deviation. Thus, yet another option is provided for adjusting the frequency with which the wireless communications services are used while still allowing accurate vehicle position information to be maintained.
A method aspect of the invention relates to a vehicle tracking method which may include determining vehicle position information using a vehicle tracking unit, such as the one briefly described above, that is carried by a vehicle. The determination may be based upon the vehicle changing a direction of travel by greater than a threshold. Furthermore, the method may also include sending the vehicle position information from the vehicle tracking unit to a monitoring station based upon each occurrence of the vehicle changing the direction of travel by greater than the threshold.